GRRRrrr8 - It Ain't

"The harmful effects of the corporate globalisation project have led to mass popular protest and activism in the South, later joined by major sectors of the rich industrial societies, hence becoming harder to ignore. For the first time concrete alliances have been taking shape at a grassroots level. It is fair to say, I think, that the future of our endangered species may be determined in no small measure by how these popular forces evolve."
- Noam Chomsky, author, academic and general trouble maker.

For five hundred issues SchNEWS has been providing information for
action to people involved in fighting for a better world. In that
time we've covered hundreds of campaigns and struggles from across
the world and learnt a simple lesson from all of them - without
breaking the rules, the fight against injustice is a waste of
time.

It's a lesson quickly learnt by anyone involved in the biggest
single issue campaign in history - anti-capitalism. Well paid
propagandists are always telling us how corporate capitalism is
the only way of running things and that any other way of
organising society simply won't work. But people in power have
always said that - from the Roman Emperors to Hitler with his
Final Solution and thousand years Reich. The individualistic,
consumerist culture based on ever expanding credit that capitalism
created in the second half of the 20th century has made things
quite nice for large middle classes in the US, Europe and
elsewhere - but only on the basis of sweatshops, poverty and war
in the majority world. And it's completely unsustainable.

The United States is easily the strongest military power in the
world but its increasingly selfish and warlike nature is a sign of
weakness, not strength. USA inc. runs a $500bn annual trade
deficit - US citizens consume $10bn more a week than they create.
The 'American way of life' is a credit-based bubble subsidised by
the rest of the world - as well as an increasing number of
Americans forced into poverty - and is only maintained by the
threat of overwhelming military force. It can't go on.

And then of course there's climate change. At the heart of
capitalist culture is a massive denial of the fact that economic
growth, on which all its economic prosperity is based, is entirely
unsustainable. Blair and the boys may be talking about it at
upcoming G8 Summit at Gleneagles but capitalism's inbuilt need for
'growth' means they'll be entirely incapable of doing anything to
prevent it.

By the time children alive today are hitting middle age, for
instance, the Himalayan glaciers will be disappearing, causing
droughts that will threaten the rice production that feeds one
third of humanity. That's just for starters. Capitalism can't
solve these problems - only popular anti-capitalist movements
uniting worldwide can. And the good news is there are lots of
them.

As reported in SchNEWS over the years, anti-capitalism is alive
and kicking across the majority world. From the slums of
Venezuela and Bolivia to the anti-occupation uprisings in
Palestine and Iraq, people are organising against poverty,
privatisation and injustice. Anti-capitalism, in a hundred forms,
isn't a choice for millions of people in the South. It's a
necessity.

There are important lessons we need to learn from these struggles,
most importantly the need to build solid, local campaigns about
the things that concern people most. The privatisation of basic
services, casualisation, the endless growth of eco-cidal
consumerism are things most people in Britain outside fatcat areas
oppose. We need to show people how direct action can resist them
and win.

But living in the heart of the beast, surrounded by the boardrooms
and hotels where deals shattering the lives of millions are made,
also gives us special responsibilities. We can expose these deals
and sometimes stop them by invading the gatherings of gangsters
making them. The people in the countries affected can't do this.
It's important that we do.

decapitaltate

Those in power can handle people going on the occasional
police-controlled march. They can also, let's be honest, handle
small groups of people doing actions that no one else gets
involved in. What they can't handle is people making alliances,
building links, supporting and learning from each other through
action. We've always been at our best when we've joined up with
others - supporting the Liverpool dockers when their union
deserted them, shutting down the World Trade Organisation in
Seattle alongside NGOs, faith groups and many others - and been at
our worst when we've retreated into subcultures that revel in
being different from everyone around us.

That doesn't mean we should never do anything that offends people
who think you can change the world by asking politicians nicely.
But most people wanting to resist capitalism (as opposed to
talking about it) know instinctively that you're not going to
achieve anything if you play by capital's rules.

Thousands of young people these days are getting involved in
politics through development charities, anti-war groups and
environmental campaigns because they hate the obscenity of
poverty, war and a capitalist system that is killing our planet.
It would be a crime if the only people talking to them were sects
telling them that police-approved marches and listening to
speeches mark the limits of anti-capitalist activity.

But that will happen if we always look for differences to argue
about with new people rather than points of agreement to act on.
An instinct for unity in action is the breath that keeps
anti-capitalism alive. Without it we might as well give up.

Social centres can be important places for building links with
local communities. But when they become home to a lifestyle proud
to be cut off from others they represent a retreat, not a success.
If everyone is white and under 35 and no one's talked to the
people at the mosque across the road because muslims are
'hierarchical' it's probably time to get out more.

neo-caber tossers

Tony Blair recently said that "it would be very odd if people came
to protest against this G8... I don't quite know what they'll be
protesting against." If we want to wipe the smile off the face of this lying,
duplicitous war criminal, we have to make our protests against
this mafia get together effective.

If a few small actions against the G8 get picked off while big
demonstrations do what they're told by the cops, Blair and Co will
sleep comfortably in their five star beds. But if we start
convincing the mass of protesters that demonstrations need to
break the rules to be effective we can send a message of
anti-capitalist solidarity around the world. Let's do it.